How to Keep Up with the Joneses of SEO

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When it comes to SEO, making sure that the search engines and the humans viewing your content are happy and stay that way can be a lot of work. Luckily, a lot of what makes search engines pick up on your content and move it to the top of the search result rankings are the same things that make your viewers keep coming back for more.

Here are a few ways to keep up with the Joneses of SEO:

1. Create Content

It's no secret that you need to create unique, original content to stay ahead and relevant in your industry. The gray area is whether long-form content or short form content is better to create. The answer? You'll want to create a mix of both long - and short-form. Here's why:

Long-form content tends to be well researched. It’s high-quality content that’s useful, consistent, and informative. This type of content helps to exude the essence of your brand, build your reputation and make others more easily trust your business. It's also more respected by the SEO bots that crawl content and rank pages. Just make sure you place the long-form content on your website appropriately.

But as compelling as long-form content is, short-form content (such as Twitter and Facebook posts, Instagram pictures) should not be overlooked. It’s a wonderful way to reach customers quickly, easily, and before their attention spans run out. Think of these short-form updates like tiny breadcrumbs that pave the path to the bigger piece of long-form content.

Using both long-form and short-form content puts your business in your readers’ minds. It also keeps them engaged and your content optimized. It’s a win/win.

2. Internal Links

Adding links to your articles or content that takes people to other useful articles is a great way to boost credibility in the SEO world. Plus, helping your customers get the information they need is always good karma. Other websites that you link to will appreciate the extra traffic you bring to their site and will be more likely to return the favor when possible. Of course, you shouldn’t link to others with any expectations in mind. Link to others because you regard their website as a solid resource. Ulterior motives don’t always work in your favor.

Also, backlinks don’t always work in your favor either. It might seem easy and straightforward at first, but buying links that you don’t earn is not smart. The long-term strategy and mentality can take you much farther if you have some patience.

3. Use Media That's Social

Using social media helps to boost your SEO and credibility. You also prevent fear of missing out when you use each social media platform the right way.

Social media allows you to listen. You can find out what your customers or competitors love, hate, or what they’re talking about. Your content will also rank higher in search engines if there are more social interactions around it. Just let it happen naturally. It won’t happen overnight - so keep your goals in mind with laser-like focus.

4. Google Authorship/Google Analytics (link back to Google article)

Google offers some great free tools for helping you boost the SEO of your content and monitor statistics for your website. With Google Authorship, every article you write or publish will have your name, brief bio, and an image associated with it. Not only will this help with your SEO, but it makes your content more trustworthy to your readers by putting a face to the words.

Google Analytics makes data useful and accessible. It’s a free tool that lets you monitor aspects of your website such as how many visits it gets per day, where these visits are coming from, and what keywords people are searching to find your site. Taking those most-used keywords and tailoring your content around them can be a great way to reverse-engineer your content strategy. Here are the four key metrics in Google Analytics to know about and consider.

5. Go Mobile

Knowing about mobile web usage means a lot for your business. Nowadays, more people are viewing websites on their smartphones than on actual computers. If you don't have a website that translates well on a mobile device, you may be losing customers. Mobile site quality is also a factor considered for good SEO.

A lot of what makes for great SEO are also factors that make your web content better and more desirable for your viewers. You can have the best of both worlds if you keep an eye on the quality, accessibility, and interactivity of your content. More robust search engine rankings coupled with quality content means that the people who find your site will come back again for more. And what business doesn’t want that?